Sony announces a sugar powered battery

Sony Corporation has announced that is has created a battery that produces electricity by breaking down a common sugar glucose solution. Sony claims that the four bio cells it created (each cell measured 39 mm cubed and delivered 50 milliwattts) produced enough power to run a Sony Walkman music player, and later a small fan powered by the cell along with a glucose-based sports drink.

Power is created by an electron flow between a cathode and an anode. The bio cell works by sugar-digesting enzymes at the anode extracting electrons and hydrogen ions from the glucose solution. A membrane separator passes the hydrogen ions through to the cathode and exposes them to oxygen, where they absorb the oxygen and produce water as a by product.

Electricity is produced when the electrons pass around the circuit on the outside of the device. Sony and other technology companies have been searching for green replacements for lithium-ion batteries that are required for portable devices, such as laptops, cell phones, MP3 players, etc. This development breakthrough could be used to power much larger devices as the technology matures.